13 Days to Halloween: 'The Orphanage' is a relentlessly scary and tense haunted house movie

For the '13 Days to Halloween' series, I collect, watch, and write about 13 brilliant and spooky 'underseen' movies that more people need to see. Note that I did not use the term 'underrated', as I believe they were just overlooked for various reasons, and not necessarily rated lower than they deserve. The films are ranked worst to best, in my opinion.

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'The Orphanage'

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The directorial debut of JA Bayona, who later went on to helm prestigious projects like 'Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom' and the first two episodes of 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power', this Spanish Gothic horror film was his debut. And what a debut it was. Relying entirely on the ambiance and atmosphere to build tension, the film is one of the finest haunted house movies of the21st century.

It stars Belén Rueda and Fernando Cayo a couple Laura and Carlos who have an adopted son called Simón (Roger Princep). Laura grew up in an orphanage and plans to turn the building into a home for disabled children. But things go wrong and Simón goes missing. At a pretty lean runtime of 97 minutes, 'The Orphanage' packs in plenty of scares, and hardly any of them are of the jump kind.

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'The Wailing'

If you are tired of run-of-the-mill flicks, of any kind and not just horror, from Hollywood, it is always safe to explore South Korean cinema. In the recent decade, the so-called Korean Wave has engulfed the world and non-Korean audiences have discovered great movies and shows. In 'The Wailing', a mountain village gets its taste of death. A man has killed his own family in a particularly grisly fashion.

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An incompetent cop, who is our hero, is horrified at the events, as the place was always sleepy and uneventful. A mysterious and elusive Japanese stranger appears to be responsible. But is there more going on beneath the surface? The film is a non-stop treat of shocks, scares, gruesome imagery, and even a bit of folk horror to satiate any horror fan. A must-watch.

'Overlord'

Nazis were already scary. But what if they were also zombies? And not dumb zombies, either. Aware and conscious, intelligent zombies who fully retain memories of their non-undead life. Directed by Julius Avery, the film makes excellent use of its main conceit to deliver a satisfying horror experience.